Increasingly, states have sold Garvee (grant-anticipation revenue vehicle) bonds to raise funds for infrastructure projects. However, the calamity on Wall Street that has already wreaked havoc in the U.S. economy could also end up hurting an already strained U.S. infrastructure system.

More than $5 million in flood damages prompted officials in north central Idaho to declare a state of emergency, while wild storms drenched parts of southern Idaho, turning farm fields into mud bogs, intersections into ponds and trampolines into UFOs.